


this raddled and unraveling here

by tree



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s03e23 Wetwired, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26965135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tree/pseuds/tree
Summary: Something essential is missing.
Relationships: Fox Mulder & Dana Scully
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16
Collections: Scully in 155





	this raddled and unraveling here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wendelah1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendelah1/gifts).



> this has been sitting around unfinished for four years. the title is from the poem 'atlantis' by mark doty. i have a weird fascination with scurvy.
> 
> for wendy, though it's a mere drop in the bucket of what i owe her.

"Ascorbic acid is a cofactor in collagen synthesis," says a voice. "Untreated scurvy is always fatal."

Pictures of wounds unhealing pass before her eyes; they stutter in slow motion like a film reel spun backwards through time. 

"Pathogenesis," continues the voice. "Defective bone formation and connective tissue, abnormal bleeding."

The pictures fade to silent fizzing snow. No signal.

"Something essential is missing."

Scully turns to locate the speaker, but there's no one, just static. "Who are you? Why are you telling me this?"

"For the want of a single compound the body will unknit itself."

"Don't you trust me, Dana?" asks her mother.

"Mom, what—"

"'Trust' comes from a word in Old Norse meaning 'strong'."

"Stop it!" Scully yells, covering her ears and squeezing her eyes shut. "Just stop!"

But her eyes are open. Sunlight is streaming through the window of her hospital room. No voices, no pictures.

She turns her head and finds Mulder.


End file.
